


Love Doesn't Come with an Instruction Manual

by plumtrees



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: College, Conventions, Feelings, Fluff, M/M, Pop Culture, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 10:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4175610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumtrees/pseuds/plumtrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seijou 3rd years (now college freshmen) go to ToyCon. Oikawa has a spaz attack over Star Wars, Iwaizumi is his designated babysitter, Hanamaki is adorable, and Matsukawa doesn't know how to deal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Doesn't Come with an Instruction Manual

**Author's Note:**

> Using the post-ToyCon high to write up a fic real quick! Seijou sannensei own my heart. See if you can point out all my headcanons (or any material from seijouline). :))

"Iwa-chan, look! They have a Star Wars exhibit, Iwa-chan! _Iwa-chan!_ "

"What kind of self-respecting toy convention _wouldn't_ have a Star Wars exhibit?" Iwaizumi muttered, but it was lost to Oikawa, who had already ran over to the line of statues in the middle of the covention hall.

Iwaizumi sighed through his nose and turned to his two remaining companions. "I better go reel him in before he tries to climb that scale model of the Death Star."

Matsukawa nodded slowly, feeling that there was an _again_ somewhere there that went unsaid, but didn't bother prodding for it.

"Let's just meet at this entrance in say, three hours?"

Matsukawa checked his watch. "Should be enough time." He looked past Iwaizumi to see that Oikawa was already hugging one of the Stormtrooper statues, stars in his eyes. He patted Iwaizumi's shoulder to lend him his strength. "Good luck."

Iwaizumi nodded grimly, rolling up his sleeves and looking for all the world like a man headed off to war. Matsukawa found himself saluting.

Matsukawa turned, an inquiry ready on his tongue, only to find that Hanamaki was no longer beside him. He clicked his tongue and looked around.

A head of strawberry blonde hair easily caught his eye, hovering in front of a booth at the corner. He trudged over, thankful not for the first time that he was so tall and that Hanamaki's hair was so unique.

"Will you please not disappear on me like that?" he poked Hanamaki's rib when he was within reach, satisfied when the other gave a small jump. "I'd really rather not waste my time looking for you in this crowd."

"Calm down. If we lose each other, you could just call me," Hanamaki said, waving his phone in his face. "Or, if worse comes to worse, the customer service desk is right there." He pointed at the desk near the entrance, where a kid, presumably lost, was being calmed down by a security guard.

"Yeah, that's rich. Missing: 184 centimeter tall teenager with pink hair. If found, please return to the customer service desk."

Hanamaki stuck his tongue out at him. "It's not pink, it's strawberry blond, you ass. And I'm 184 _point seven_ centimeters."

"And still haven't grown even a millimeter since high school." Matsukawa patted his head to drive the insult further. He caught sight of the other item held in Hanamaki's hand and raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"It's a Funko Pop." Hanamaki replied, turning his attention back to the selection laid out on the table.

Matsukawa eyed the boxed figures, piled long and high. He could probably find any and every pop culture character here, if he tried. "You collecting?"

"I just started recently," Hanamaki said absently, picking up another box and pouting between the two he held in each hand. "I'm only getting ones of characters I really like."

Matsukawa eyed a section specifically for video game characters and picked up a Kratos figurine. How they managed to make the god of all badassery look cute was beyond him, but it was oddly endearing. Pity they couldn't quite emulate his murderous expression in those beady little eyes.

"Hey, help me decide." Hanamaki piped up, shoving two boxes in his face. Matsukawa backed up a little until the figures were far enough to be recognizable.

Matsukawa blinked at the Altaïr and Ezio figurines. "Why not both?"

"I promised myself I'd only get one. These things are expensive."

 _Fair enough_ , Matsukawa thought, eyeing the price sticker. Between these two, he didn't really have a preference (Edward, maybe, but he wasn't in the choice list, and he'd really rather not have Hanamaki torn between _three_ so he kept his mouth shut). Putting a hand up, he pointed at Hanamaki's left hand without really thinking about it.

Hanamaki pulled back both hands, staring at the box in his right hand (Altaïr, apparently) mournfully.

Matsukawa rolled his eyes. Thinking fast, he tried to remember exactly how much money he had stuffed in his wallet that morning, then he poked Hanamaki in the ribs to get his attention. "How about I get you whatever you're not getting as a Christmas gift or something."

Hanamaki stared at him, eyes a fraction wider in an expression Matsukawa recognizes as genuine surprise. "Christmas is six months away."

"Merry six-months-early Christmas then. Now are you buying those or not, 'cause I think that's the last Ezio, and there's this dude who's been staring at it since you picked it up."

It was a bluff, but Hanamaki fell for it anyway, immediately handing the two boxes over to the cashier. Matsukawa passed him his half of the payment, lips twitching slightly when Hanamaki hugged the paper bag close to his chest and peeked at the contents, as if to make sure they were his purchase, never mind the fact that he eyed the whole checkout process from start to finish.

Hanamaki turned to him with a smile that made Matsukawa's stomach do an odd little flip. Funny how his eyes still managed to look bored as fuck when he was clearly so happy. "What do _you_ want for six-months-early Christmas?"

Matsukawa shook his head. "Figurines aren't really my thing."

It was a roundabout way of telling him _you don't need to get me anything_ but he's learned long ago that that never worked with Hanamaki. If he wanted to spoil you, you got spoiled, no matter how hard you tried to run away. The best thing to do would be to just go with it.

"Well I think I know what might be," Hanamaki grinned. He gave a little mock bow and made a sweeping gesture toward a booth selling video games. 

Matsukawa tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't help another small smile when Hanamaki straightened and offered him his arm.

-

"Are you seriously considering that game? After _Dark Souls_ , you're gonna go for another round? Are you a closet masochist or something?"

Matsukawa eyed him from above the CD case he was holding. "You only hate it because you couldn't stay alive for more than two minutes at a time."

Hanamaki shot him a dirty look but he wasn't paying attention, staring at old releases with near-unbelievable discount prices. It probably wasn't such a good idea to buy video games when the first round of exams were approaching but Matsukawa was never a stellar example of someone who has made good life decisions.

"Hey, Matsukawa, look!"

Case in point: Matsukawa looked up from a copy of _Psycho Break_ and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Hanamaki had wandered off to an adjacent booth and tried on a lolita-style headband, the black and white lace contrasting with his hair (in a good way, if Matsukawa were to be very honest with himself). Two satin roses sat on each side of his head, ribbon tails trailing all the way past his chin, curling inwards and framing his angular face.

And, to hammer the final nail in the coffin of Matsukawa's failing cognitive ability, Hanamaki put up two fingers in a peace sign, puckered his lips in an over-exaggerated duck face, and fluttered his eyelashes.

It was only thanks to years spent diving after volleyballs that the CD did not hit the floor when it fell from his slack hands.

-

In the end, Hanamaki bought him _Psycho Break_ , immediately tucking it in Matsukawa's bag after dodging his attempts to hold it. Probably the smartest decision, given his little episode earlier.

They passed another cosplay booth where he caught sight of a mannequin decked out in a maid outfit, and Matsukawa's higher mental functions filed for resignation when the unbidden image of Hanamaki in said maid outfit came to mind.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay to be walking around?" Hanamaki asked, eyebrow raised, and Matsukawa waved him off furiously, hiding his blush in the high collar of his jacket.

-

"Hey, Matsukawa, do you wanna go on a picnic?"

Matsukawa looked up from his inspection of a glow-in-the-dark UFO shirt to find a pale brown alpaca plush toy smiling at him.

_The fuck?_

The toy was bounced impatiently, (" _Picnic_ ," it prompted) and Matsukawa sighed, wondering if he was put on this earth to serve as a perpetual straight man to Hanamaki's antics.

"Sure?"

"Alpaca lunch."

Matsukawa blinked thrice, not really sure Hanamaki really aimed for him to laugh at that one, because never had Matsukawa ever heard a joke delivered so dryly before. Hanamaki's head poked out from behind the giant alpaca plushie he was holding.

"You're a horrible audience."

"Ever think that maybe you're just a horrible comedian?" Matsukawa quipped back, scowling at the 1800¥ tag hanging off the toy. "I got something like that from the crane machine for a hundred yen. That thing's overpriced."

"Or, you're just too good at crane machines." Hanamaki retorted before he returned the alpaca to the expectant-looking clerk with an apologetic smile.

Matsukawa shrugged and handed his eventual-birthday present to Oikawa to the guy manning the booth. "It's easy, I don't know what everyone's deal is."

"Those things are evil. They don't even grip properly." Hanamaki rested his chin on his shoulder and eyed his latest purchase. Matsukawa tried very hard not to flinch away. "For the cap'n, I presume?"

"Yeah. I figured I might as well," Matsukawa answered, biting down shivers at the feel of Hanamaki's breath against his neck. The other drew back, staring at him with furrowed brows. He hummed thoughtfully after a moment's pause, and Matsukawa let out a silent sigh of relief when Hanamaki stepped aside and searched the booth's various space-related wares to find his own gift for Oikawa.

-

As the afternoon dragged on, the convention hall became more crowded. He looked behind him and cursed when Hanamaki didn't pop out from the sea of people he just extracted himself from.

Hanamaki was by no means short, but still, he somehow managed to get lost as soon as the crowd became too dense. He had this stupid tendency to just wander off without prior notice when something in any of the booths caught his fancy, and this was the third time Matsukawa had lost him.

Pulling out his phone, he typed out a quick _where u_ , foot tapping anxiously.

Barely a minute later, he received a reply of _figma booth, beside wig booth_ and squeezed himself back into the crowd to get to the aforementioned location.

He stomped over to where the other boy was looking over some Figma displays and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"If this is what Iwaizumi had to go through for ten years of his life I swear he deserves a special place in heaven."

"Hey don't group me in the same category as Oikawa!" Hanamaki whined, but didn't struggle as Matsukawa guided them to a less crowded area.

"Then stop getting lost."

Hanamaki leveled an irritated glare at him. "I wasn't lost. I saw something I liked, I went over to look at it. I'm perfectly capable of finding my way around the place and finding my way back to you if I wanted to."

"Fine." Matsukawa snapped, dropping Hanamaki's shirt. "Iwaizumi said to meet in Entrance A at 4PM. See you later, I guess."

He stormed off with a half-assed wave, mind reeling with emotions boiling over, all swirled up into one big mess and clouding his better judgement.

He couldn't hear Hanamaki's protests, didn't even notice him running after him, but the other grabbed his arm and suddenly his right side was warm and tingling and he looked down to see Hanamaki's concerned face inches from his.

His thin brows furrowed with his expression, marring the plane of his forehead with wrinkles, Matsukawa wanted to brush them away. When he spoke, it was soft, almost lost in the clamor of the crowd around them. "Why are you mad?"

"I'm not mad." _It wasn't a lie._

"Bullshit. You've been all," Hanamaki stepped back, assured he wasn't going to run, and gestured vaguely at him, "tense for some reason."

Matsukawa forcefully unfurled the lump of anxiety in his body that he wasn't even aware was present. Hanamaki's expression grew even more frustrated the obvious attempt. 

"I mean, I thought, as your best friend you'd be okay with telling me stuff that's bothering you," and he trailed off, eyes flicking from the floor to Matsukawa, unsure if he was making erroneous assumptions, uncharacteristically hesitant.

Matsukawa's mouth felt dry, what should he say? What _could_ he say?

_It's not you it's me I've had this stupid crush on you that you can never know about and I'm reaching my breaking point and I know it's not your fault but I don't know how to deal—_

"You _are_ ," he said, and lifts up a little when Hanamaki's eyes light up at the confirmation, "and that's exactly why I _can't_ tell you."

A moment of silence, then Hanamaki sighed, bringing a hand up to his hair.

"Okay," Hanamaki breathed, nodding. "Okay."

Matsukawa swallowed around the lump in his throat and followed behind Hanamaki as he walked away, head ducked and keeping a respectable distance between them.

It stayed like that for a while, and Matsukawa continued to eye his scuffed sneakers as they walked, hoping it would boil over soon enough.

-

"Matsukawa?"

He lifted his head and suddenly Hanamaki isn't there. He heard his voice again and he jerked his head to the source, but still, no trace of the other boy in the crowd.

"Hanamaki!"

"Here!" Hanamaki shouted from somewhere to his right and Matsukawa practically jumped out of his skin when Hanamaki's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. He closed a hand around Hanamaki's wrist and pulled him back, letting out an _oof_ when Hanamaki collided with his chest.

Quickly, he looked the other boy over. "You alright?"

Hanamaki nodded and Matsukawa, satisfied, backed away. Or tried to. He looked down at Hanamaki's hand pointedly, still clamped around his wrist, but the blond only glared back and tightened his grip.

"You said you were worried about losing me in this crowd," Hanamaki said, "this way, we won't get separated, right?"

He readjusted so that Matsukawa's hand was fitted in his. He turned and tugged him along, and Matsukawa was left to follow, eyes magnetized to their linked hands, the line of Hanamaki's arm, the awkward angle of his shoulders and the too-long hair at his nape that licked at the collar of his shirt.

The grip had loosened considerably, but Matsukawa didn't even try to pull away.

-

"Mattsun! Makki!"

The hand slipped out of his grip and almost immediately, the palm of his hand tingled in memory of the warmth it no longer held. He closed his eyes and willed away the urge to punch their former captain in the face.

Oikawa skipped over to them, carrying about a dozen paper bags and wearing a different t-shirt from that morning (Join the Dork Side, it said). Iwaizumi followed behind him, more calmly and looking tired but content. He had a Godzilla plush under one arm and a paper bag in his free hand.

"Didja have fun?" Oikawa asked, grinning and still full of energy, bags crunching noisily at his sides as he waved his arms.

He met Hanamaki's glance the second he felt it prickling his skin. From the corner of his eye, he saw Oikawa pause, head turning from him to Hanamaki then to Iwaizumi, who shrugged.

He jumped back slightly when Oikawa slid in the space between him and Hanamaki.

"Look, I got you guys something too!" he said, a little louder than necessary, presenting them each with a paper bag.

"I tried to talk him out of it, I really did." Iwaizumi groaned, sounding like he had grievously failed them as a vice-captain (nevermind that he isn't anymore, but old habits die hard, he guessed) and a friend. Oikawa must've pulled a very convincing argument for Iwaizumi to have lost this one. He wondered if the Godzilla plush had anything to do with it.

Matsukawa blinked at the bag, and after the third failed attempt at wishing it away, he reached into the bag and pulled out a onesie. A panda onesie. He glanced over at Hanamaki and found that his was a pink bunny. With the floppy bunny ears and the cotton tail and everything. He was seriously torn between strangling Oikawa and giving him a hug. 

"When you guys sleep over for my birthday, I'm requiring you to wear these!" Oikawa declared, showing off two more onesies, the other presumably Iwaizumi's.

Matsukawa shared another sidelong glance with Hanamaki. In perfect sync, they dropped the offending garments and crossed their hands in front of them in the shape of an x.

"We refuse."

-

On Oikawa's birthday, Matsukawa found himself curled beside Hanamaki, both dressed in the (admittedly very comfortable) onesies and playing _Monster Hunter_. 

From Oikawa's bed, a grey mouse let out a frustrated roar.

"Iwaizumi died again." Hanamaki muttered helpfully, continuing to hack up the Rathian's tail while it was distracted with Iwaizumi's character.

From beside said mouse, a teal unicorn let out a torrent of _Oh no, nonononoNO—_ before groaning and flopping against the pillows.

"Oikawa too." Matsukawa supplied this time, smirking when his last charged hit broke the wyvern's faceplate.

Hanamaki whistled low in celebration when the tail fell off, unleashing a full combo attack while the Rathian flailed. "Remind me why we took them to do this quest with us again? They both suck."

"Live bait."

Hanamaki's lips twitched in a smile and he tucked himself tighter against Matsukawa's side, his bunny ear tickling the underside of Matsukawa's jaw. Oikawa humphed, PSP abandoned in favor of observing his former teammates from under his hood. Matsukawa spared him a glance, raising his eyebrow at the intense gaze. 

"So..." Oikawa drawled, dragging out the syllable, "when did you guys start dating?"

The sounds of buttons being mashed suddenly fell silent. In-game, the Rathian bucked to the right and killed both their characters at the same time.

He and Hanamaki took turns pelting Oikawa with pillows after that.


End file.
